GENERAL REQUIREMENTS. 11 



further, and when the la,rge terminal bud of the palm is destroyed 

 the tree usually dies. Those that do develop give rise to 

 " suckers "(off-shoots). They seem to require lengthened contact 

 with some moist surface to stimulate them to do so. " Suckers " 

 are, therefore, usually produced at the base of the stem where the 

 soil keeps the axillary buds moist. On rare occasions, however, 

 suckers are to be seen developing high above the level of the soil 

 surface (see illustrations Nos. 13 and 14, pages lOfr & ICc). The 

 axillary buds, protected as they are by the old leaf bases, often lie 

 dormant for many years before developing into suckers, but those 

 that are to develop have generally begun to do so within 20 years 

 (see page 89, para. 56). 



6. The sexes of the date palm are usually on separate 



trees. Perhaps for our purpose this statement 



^'^flower-duster. i g sufficiently explained by saying that one tree 



bears only flowers which cannot develop into 



fruits but which produce a yellowish powder-like substance called 



'' pollen " (see para. 7, page 12), while another tree produces 



only flowers which produce no pollen and must be fertilised 



(see para. 8, page 12) by pollen from flowers of the former 



class, before they can develop fruits. The trees which produce 



the pollen-bearing flowers are known as males, while those that 



produce the fruit-bearing flowers are known as females. 



In spring a number of structures, at first greenish, and later 

 brown, more or less lens-shaped in transverse section, and measur- 

 ing 3 to 5 inches across and a foot or more in length, make their 

 appearance between the bases of the leaves which crown the 

 palm. These structures are called " spathes," and each spathe 

 encloses a cluster of flowers. When the spathe has become brown 

 in colour and has attained something like the size mentioned 

 above, it splits open and exposes the cluster of flowers which : it 

 contains (see illustrations Nos. 15 and 16, pages I2a & 126). Each 

 flower-cluster consists of a central stem with usually some 50 to 

 150, or more, lateral branches radiating from near its end. and 

 each of these small branches carries on it a large number of tiny 



